Snow, glaciers, water availability and water temperature in Switzerland under climate change

The climate system, cryosphere and hydrological system are deeply intertwined and influence each other. For example, changes in air temperature drives glacier melt, which in turn directly influences streamflow during summer months. This lecture presents recent scientific evidence on the link between these different systems in the context of a changing climate in Switzerland, including results of the "Hydro-CH2018" project of the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment. This presentation addresses changes in the climate system itself, in ice and snow cover, in water availability and temperature, and in their interactions, along with the consequences for the ecosystem and human society. We present evidence of changes over the last 50 years and projections towards the end of the 21st century for these different variables and system components with different greenhouse gas emission pathways. Finally, possible mitigation strategies for water scarcity and high temperature in rivers will be discussed.

Speaker: 

Adrien Michel (School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland; WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF), Davos, Switzerland)

Co-authors:

Harry Zekollari (Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology (VAW), ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), Birmensdorf, Switzerland; Laboratoire de Glaciologie, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium); Manuela Brunner (Institute of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany); Loris Compagno (Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology (VAW), ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), Birmensdorf, Switzerland); Regula Mülchi (Institute of Geography & Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland; Center for Climate Systems Modeling C2SM, ETH, Zürich, Switzerland; Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss, Zurich-Airport, Switzerland); Hendrik Huwald (School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland; WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF), Davos, Switzerland); Bettina Schaefli (Institute of Geography & Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland; Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics (IDYST), University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland)